An Exclusive From The Eddie Brinkmann Archives…Part 1
An Exclusive From The Eddie Brinkmann Archives…Part 1
How’s this for a resume? To help you get to know more about Eddie’s amazing carrier, that covers Broadway and television, I thought we should start with is resume. The first page (left) and half covers a lot of big names in theater, but be sure and take a look at the bottom of page two (middle) and all of page 3. The shows he stage managed are some of the biggest in television. Although he worked with Sullivan 23 years, that was usually just on Saturday and Sundays. The rest of the week he was stage managing other shows, including Jackie Gleason, The Ed Murrow Show, Red Buttons, Frank Sinatra and even CBS shows shot on film in NYC like the Phil Silvers and Sargent Bilko shows. How would you like to have references like those at the bottom of page three (right)? Thanks to Dee Wexler, his granddaughter for sharing this. There is much more to come! Please share this with your friends.
Welcome To An Eyes Of A Generation EXCLUSIVE
Welcome To An Eyes Of A Generation EXCLUSIVE!
Starting now, we will all be privy to some very interesting facts, details and even a few secrets about ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’, that before now, were never available. Thanks to Dee Wexler, we are going to be able to explore the extraordinary photos and papers left behind by her famous grandfather…Eddie Brinkmann. As Ed Sullivan’s stage manager, Eddie was Sullivan’s right hand man from start till finish. They spent 23 years and 1,054 episodes together creating history on one of televisions most enduring and revered programs. That I know of, no one other than Eddie Brinkmann was there for the entire run of the show. Others came and went, but not Eddie. True, Sullivan did fire him numerous times, but always asked him to come back and among other things, we will see some of those “kiss and make up” letters. There are a lot of interesting things to come, including lots of Sullivan show schedule sheets, never before seen photos and more. I have sent some of the photos to former Sullivan staffers for help on putting names with faces and as we go, I’ll depend on your help too. Please share these posts so that your friends will not miss out.
Ed Sullivan…A View From The Control Room
Ed Sullivan…A View From The Control Room
On the left is director John Wray and I’m not sure who the others are at this console. From the stage, this would be in to back left corner behind the audience and I think the booth was entered from a door that would be to the left of John Wray. This is a rehearsal with ventriloquist Rickie Layne but it’s interesting that only a couple of monitors have camera feeds. Perhaps other monitors out of range on the right are showing more. I think in the radio days, the audio booth was isolated but is now accessible from the control room.
The Studio 50 Audio Booth
The Studio 50 Audio Booth
On the left you see the new audio booth built in 1936 when CBS took over the theater for use as a radio studio. In 1950, it was converted to a television studio. On the right, Lucy is in rehearsal for a 1956 Sullivan show and behind her, you see the audio booth again. Between the booth and stage, some audience seats had been removed to make room for The Ray Bloch Orchestra. The control room was at the back of the house on this same side and would be just behind the RCA TK30.
A Rare View Of ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’
A Rare View Of ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’
This is the only photo I know of that shows the RCA television projection system in use at Studio 50. The screen is roughly 16 x 19 and gives a good look at the broadcast image to those in the upper balcony. The balcony was built as a two tier affair with an upper and lower section separated by a an isle. On the night The Beatles played, there was a camera in the balcony isle and most of the screaming girl shots were from that camera. If you look closely at the lower left, in silhouette, you can see what looks like a camera there now and this is possibly a regular position for one of the six cameras. This photo is from a regular, non Beatles show. The act is Rickie Layne and his wooden friend Velvel. The lower portion of the balcony was removed when the Letterman remodeling took place. By the way, notice the RCA TK30 just above the projection head. It is atop of the stage right scaffold mentioned here last week. Also, you can just barley see a few of the orchastra members on the bottom right.
Waaaaaaaaaay Down Memory Lane…This is The Ed Sullivan Theater in 1928
Waaaaaaaaaay Down Memory Lane…
This is The Ed Sullivan Theater in 1928 as we look south from 54th Street. At the time, it was The Hammerstein Theater and had only been open about a year. The marquee display is for “Good Boy” which ran from September 5, 1928 till April 13, 1929 and starred Charles Butterworth and Evelyn Bennett. Busby Berkley choreographed, Arthur Hammerstein produced and Reginald Hammerstein directed. Thanks to our friend Rick Sheckman for the photo.
“In The Bucket”
“In The Bucket”
With the exception of the Chapman Electra in NBC’s 8H, there are virtually no crane cameras left in modern broadcast studios, but back in the day, when they were in wide use, the cameraman on the crane’s position was referred to as “in the bucket”. I suspect, but don’t know, that the term came from the bucket seats and sitting in one of them for several hours sure beats standing behind a pedestal camera. This is a great shot of Studio 50s Houston Fearless 30B crane shooting Ringo at the afternoon taping of the Beatles inserts for the February 23rd show. This may be Pat McBride in the bucket operating one of the six Marconi Mark IVs.
A Hard Day’s Night…The Party After “The Really Big Show”
A Hard Day’s Night…The Party After “The Really Big Show”
February 9th had been a very long, but amazing work day for The Beatles. To celebrate, NY DJ Murray The K took the boys clubbing. The night’s first stop (left) was the Playboy Club, but after they had seen the bunnies, they left for a much hipper joint, The Peppermint Lounge (right). That I know of, Ringo is the only one that twisted the night away on the dance floor, but a good time was had by all and the party ended around 4AM when Murray parted ways with them at the now quiet Plaza Hotel. How would you like to own this autographed postcard?
It Was 50 Years Ago, Today…
It Was 50 Years Ago, Today…
Here is the CBS press release on the Beatles debut on Ed Sullivan and the TV Guide listing for the Los Angeles area. Thanks to David Schwartz at GSN for the TV Guide page. Tomorrow, a wrap up of a few very interesting weeks for me and, what The Beatles did after the show! I hope you enjoy all of tonight’s events! The bottom of the TV Guide page is interesting and was just a few months after that awful day in Dallas. Back then, there was no internet, DVD, VHS tape…nothing but books and 8mm home film for private consumption of major events of the day. My how times have changed! A good smart phone can do it all now.
Here’s Where The Historic Sullivan Cameras Retired To…
Here’s Where The Historic Sullivan Cameras Retired To…
https://eyesofageneration.com/where-the-ed-sullivan-beatles-cameras-finally-wound-up/
At the link above, you can read the whole story on the Gallery page of my main website. CBS was very good about donating outdated equipment to colleges and religious broadcasters. Occasionally, public broadcasting stations got some help too, like WCNY in Syracuse NY, which signed on in late 1965. ’65 was the year CBS made a huge commitment to color when the Norelco PC60s debuted. I don’t think WCNY had a live capacity till a few years after they went on the air. Not all of the black and white cameras were thrown overboard though. CBS had a dozen or so Mark VIs at the Broadcast Center which came to life in 1964.
Without The Cameras, It Would’ve Been A Radio Show…
Without The Cameras, It Would’ve Been A Radio Show…
Below are a couple of shots of my Marconi Mark IV camera. It is one of only four known to exist in the US. Less than a dozen exist world wide. The night The Beatles performed for the first time in the US, six of these were in use at CBS Studio 50. In 1950, Studio 50 was transformed from a CBS radio studio to a television studio and was equipped with RCA TK30 cameras. ‘The Jackie Gleason Show’ moved from DuMont to CBS and Studio 50 in Sept 1952…Ed Sullivan moved from The Maxine Elliot Theater (CBS Studio 51) in fall 1953 and soon after, RCA TK31s were installed. Around 1962, CBS began using the new Marconi Mark IV cameras at Television City and Studio 50 was the first installation of these fine cameras in New York. My camera is an exact replica of those used fifty years ago tonight to make television history. To see where the Sullivan cameras wound up, see the next post on this page.
Jimmy’s Last Late Night…Here’s the monologue from last nights final show
Jimmy’s Last Late Night…
Here’s the monologue from last nights final show. At the end of the show, Fallon walked out of 6A and down the hall to 6B, the new Tonight Show home where he was greeted by his cheering staff. Break a leg Jimmy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1S86FiI3HY
In his last Late Night monologue, Jimmy recognizes some milestones over the years and expresses his gratitude to the staff and crew. Subscribe NOW to Late Ni…
Thanks For The Tickets Daddy! The Cronkite Girls
Thanks For The Tickets Daddy!
On the left is Nancy Cronkite and on the right, sister Kathy with Paul and Ringo after the Saturday rehearsal. I wonder if Walter brought them? The girls returned Sunday night for the live show. There is a story that Jack Paar’s daughter Randi, brought Julie and Tricia Nixon to the show, but the story is not true. One guest at the Sunday dress rehearsal was Leonard Bernstein.
Beatles 50th Sullivan Anniversary Count Down…1 Day
Beatles 50th Sullivan Anniversary Count Down…1 Day
Tomorrow, we’ll see pictures from the Sunday afternoon press gaggle, but today we’ll look at the Saturday afternoon press gathering. There had been a rehearsal that morning that had stand ins for George who was ill at the Plaza Hotel, but by late afternoon, he was well enough to help tape promos for the up coming shows and for photos. Notice that the crane mounted camera is up behind them as one promo background may have included the bank of photographers. If you look closely at the far right photo, you notice that all of the press have removed their flash attachments. Flash cameras and Image Orthicon television cameras do not get along well and multiple flashes into that Marconi Mark IV would have fried that $5000 IO tube.
The Beatles’ Debut on ‘Ed Sullivan’
Hot Off The Press…New York Times
This week, I had the pleasure of meeting and comparing notes with reporter James Barron, who’s article in today’s New York Times appears at this link. Like me, he’s been doing a lot of deep digging through fifty year old details to uncover some of the people and circumstances that surrounded one of America’s most memorable and transformative Sunday nights…The Beatles first appearance on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’. Enjoy!
The Beatles’ Debut on ‘Ed Sullivan’
Fifty years later, audience members who were present at the birth of Beatlemania remember the electric atmosphere and the screaming.
Hail And Farewell Old Friend…
Hail And Farewell Old Friend…
Johnny Carson would have been proud of the way Jay Leno continued the legacy of ‘The Tonight Show’. So would Steve Allen, Jack Paar and the man who had the vision to bring it to life in 1954…NBC’s Pat Weaver. On September 24, the show will celebrate it’s 60th Anniversary. Last night’s show was something special and Billy Crystal was the perfect friend to help Jay bring it in for a very sweet and heart felt final landing.
Beatles 50th Sullivan Anniversary Count Down…2 Days
Beatles 50th Sullivan Anniversary Count Down…2 Days
Today, the sound problems. Notice anything missing in any of the Beatles stage photos either in New York or Miami? No? How about the guitar amplifiers…not a single one anywhere. As mentioned here before, “the sound” was a big problem for all three shows, and most of the problems were caused by the hidden amps. There are three areas of concern that intermingled to cause these problems…the band’s ability to hear their music and vocals, the audience’s ability to hear and the audio mix fed along with the pictures on the broadcasts. There was a concerted effort to make the sets really pop on TV and the set designer wanted to keep them clean by hiding the amps, but that meant putting them behind the scrim and miking them for air which would be fine for the broadcast mix, but the stage and house mix would suffer. I’ve been told that the house PA system at the time was not very good. It was quite adequate for audiences to hear dialog from actors, but it was not meant for music. Even Elvis had amps on stage when he performed there in the late 50s and as far as I know, this was the first attempt to hide the amps. The Beatles performances were totally live and in rehearsals, even without the audiences, it took a while to tweak the audio. But then, when the audiences came in, the screaming was so overwhelming that it drowned out that balance so another round of tweaking started. The audience was so loud, the cameramen could not hear anything in their headsets. The band had a #1 record and the performance had to match the sound on the radio. Brian Epstine and John Lennon were so flustered by the sound problems in the theater, even at the closed rehearsals, that he and the band went to the control room a couple of times to hear the playback of the rehearsal tapes just to make sure the broadcast audio was right. It did not help that the audio man’s grease pencil marks from the Sunday morning closed rehearsal had been erased prior to the 2:30 dress rehearsal. That lasted almost till the 4:30 taping of the performances to be inserted into the February 23 show.
Flashback! Studio 50 Marquee Lives Again!
Flashback! Studio 50 Marquee Lives Again!
Thanks to our friends at David Letterman’s Ed Sullivan Theater, the famous marquee has been transformed into a replica of the Studio 50 marquee of fifty years ago…at least for this weekend. Not long ago, Paul and Ringo visited the theater with Letterman, remembering the night of February 9, 1964 and that will be a part of the CBS News live webcast at 6:30 Sunday night. Thanks to Letterman’s Rick Scheckman for letting us know about the marquee earlier this week and to CBS Vice President of Late-Night Programming, Vincent Favale for coming up with the idea. There’s much more on this, and this weekend’s events in the article at the link.
50 years later — A fan recalls watching the Beatles’ American debut
50,000 Requests For 728 Seats…
Andrea Tibbits got one of them. Here’s Anthony Mason’s story on her night with The Beatles from last night’s CBS Evening News.
50 years later — A fan recalls watching the Beatles’ American debut
The then 13-year-old scored a ticket to famed group’s appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show; and as the cameras closed in, there she was screaming
Beatles 50th Sullivan Anniversary Count Down…3 Days
Beatles 50th Sullivan Anniversary Count Down…3 Days
This extremely rare photo goes a long way in clearing up some long lost details of the day’s rehearsals on February 9, 1964. This photo was taken at the 2:30 dress rehearsal at Studio 50 for that night’s live show, which was to be followed at 4:30 by the taping of two song sets for insertion into the February 23 show…the third and last Beatles appearance of this visit. With Ringo’s coat off, this photo helps prove that the 2:30 dress was a long and drawn out process. Candice Cushing, who was there, has told me that there were a lot of starts and stops because the sound was just not right. I’d mentioned before that the band had rehearsed that morning, but the story is that someone had erased the grease pencil marks on the audio board before dress rehearsal. The band went into the control room that morning to listen to play backs of the sound check and may have done that again in the 2:30 dress. No one had ever done that before but they did! A full dress rehearsal would have gone till 3:30 with an hour between that and the taping session, but I feel pretty sure that the 2:30 dress lasted until at least 4 or 4:15. The 4:30 taping should have taken half an hour and end by 5 when the day’s first audience would exit. The band left for the hotel after the taping and returned at 7 for the live show at 8. Tomorrow, we’ll discuss the sound problems but if you look at all the photos of the band’s Sullivan appearances, even in Florida, you’ll notice something missing that was the root of the problem.